Early learning and childcare

Our Early Learning and Childcare Service supports the vision, aims and objectives of the Scottish Government in the development and sustainability of high quality, integrated services that give children and young people the opportunity to have the best possible start in life.

We aim to:

provide services for vulnerable children under three years and their families

secure an early learning and childcare place for eligible children whose parents want this. The place may be in Council early childhood centres, in a partner centre or with community childminders for children who are aged 2-3 years

Positive starts: East Ayrshire's response to the Early Years Framework

In December 2008 the Scottish Government published The Early Years Framework following the launch of the joint Scottish Government and COSLA Policy Statement 'Early Years and Early Intervention' (March 2008).

The Early Years Framework aims to target the early years to improve the life chances of Scotland’s children and tackle inequalities. It requires all services and agencies to re-design their services and, where appropriate, improve services to children and families. It tries to take away the bureaucracy and any duplication in services and build capacity within communities to support children and families.

The Early Years Framework is also set within the context of the Scottish Government’s 'Equally Well' report, which tackles health inequalities and 'Achieving Our Potential', which tackles poverty and income inequalities.

Community Planning Partners focus their priorities on the four key elements of transformational change:

helping children, families and communities to secure outcomes for themselves

using the strength of universal services to deliver prevention and early intervention

simplifying and streamlining delivery

collaborative approaches

The context for moving forward will be 'Getting It Right For Every Child', which is about ensuring that agencies increasingly work towards One Child, One Assessment, One Plan. Progress is already being made through the roll-out of an Integrated Assessment Framework.